180 Days to Elimination

On March 13, 2017, number 45 issued a “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch”.

This executive order gives the head of each agency 180 days to propose a plan for their agency to “reorganize the agency, if appropriate, in order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of that agency”. The order goes on the allow the proposals to “eliminate unnecessary agencies”. This is repeated several times.

At first glance this could be beneficial to the government and the people. There is no doubt that our government and agencies need “to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability…” Too much bureaucracy and red tape causes budget inflation and unnecessary delays.

The order also has a provision (b) that require the proposals to be published “in the Federal Register inviting the public to suggest improvements”. So these proposals to make the agencies more efficient, will be open to the public for review and comments. However, the directory only has to “consider the suggestions when formulating the proposed plan.”

The proposed plan shall include, as appropriate, recommendations to eliminate unnecessary agencies, components of agencies, and agency programs, and to merge functions.

If these were normal times, I believe people might actually be excited about this order, and the idea of high level reform in our government. Sadly, these are not normal times. Let’s take a loot at just a few of the directors who will be submitting proposals for their agencies.

From just these three examples, there is a high probability that their respective agencies will be eliminated or reorganized to favor big business. We must be vigilant, look out for the public postings of these proposals and voice our concerns.